Now THAT is a Saw Blade!

I don't think that's going to fit the saw...



Actually, the man is helping to position the blade for sharpening. It's a picture from Gary Katz's article about the Hull-Oaks Sawmill in Oregon. It's the last steam-powered commercial sawmill in the country.

Qabili Palau

Sameem has AWESOME food... at least that's what I've heard. I can tell you that they have AWESOME Qabili Palau, because that's the only thing I ever get there. I've never moved past it. It's too good. So that I can get my fill of it, and move on to other dishes at Sameem's, I've decided to bring the dish into my own repertoire.

For starters, Sameem makes theirs with a leg of lamb. It's totally amazing, but in order to make it a more affordable dish, as well as one that can be cooked in a large skillet, since I don't own a casserole, I'm going with 2 defrosted, boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

This recipe requires parallel processing. Be prepared. To minimize pipeline stalls, go ahead and prepare your carrots in advance, because that is the most time consuming part of it. Julienne two carrots into 2" strips, and set aside.

Start by browning the two chicken breasts in about 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil with about 1/2 tablespoon of unsalted butter. Grind some fresh pepper over them, and a bit of kosher salt. It should take about 3-5 minutes per side.

Oh, by the way, I just came across this website is like Youtube for cooking. There are some SERIOUSLY good looking recipes to be had here... http://www.videojug.com/tag/indian-recipes

Anyway, while the chicken is browning, bring 3 cups of water to a boil in another pot, and add 1/2 tablespoon of unsalted butter. Then cut up 1 large sweet onion, or two small ones. The water should come to a boil about the same time the second side of the breasts are done browning.

Put the breasts in the boiling water, and reduce to a simmer. Put the chopped onion in the oil the chicken just came from, and cook until the onions are golden brown.

Once the chicken has simmered in the water enough to make a fine broth, remove the chicken, and set aside. Add 1 tsp of saffron to the water, and let simmer or lightly boil.

To the oil and onions, add about 1-2 tsp of cumin, 1 cinnamon stick, 1/2 tsp of ground cloves, or a few whole cloves, a few cardamom pods, if you have them (I actually did not), a bit of nutmeg, 1 tsp of sugar (I used turbinado), 1 tsp of kosher salt, 1 tsp of ground coriander. You can jack up these values if you think there's not enough spice in there.

Now add two handfuls of raisins to the onions and spices. I used the Sun-maid Jumbo Mixed Raisins, as always.... they're sooo good! Cook that until the raisins are plump, then add the carrots, and let it all cook until it looks and smells too good to be true.

Meanwhile, you'll need to rinse off about 1 1/2 cups of basmati rice, and bring the broth to a boil, if it's not already. Once the onion, raisin, and carrot mix is ready, drop the rice in here, and turn it in until well coated. Then pour the boiling broth in there, and cover it up, and let simmer for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop the chicken breasts into cubes. I guess you could've put them in with the rice, or not. I didn't.

That's all there is to it! Serve with a tall glass of lightly sweetened Darjeeling iced tea. Dishes like this prove that God does love us, and wants us to be happy. Sorry for the out-of-focus pictures. I'll try to put better ones up there next time I make it.

Homemade Spalted Maple Boards

I bought a Powermatic 14" band saw a few weeks ago. It took a while for the 6" riser block to come from Amazon, and then I had to get a 3/4 inch Timberwolf blade, and then get it replaced because the weld was slightly off (more than acceptable), and finally, last night, I got to do some meaningful work with the saw. I ripped a log that I had salvaged from a neighbor's dying red maple (Acer rubrum) into 1 1/4" boards. I managed to get some really sweet boards out of it. They're now in the basement drying.

It wasn't all good times though. It took me a while just to get up the nerve to even rip the log, because it had rather large holes from some kind of wood boring insect, and I did not want to be the idiot that let loose a termite infestation into his own house. But I could see by the end grain that there was some stunning spalting to be had, and after some careful consideration, and preparation of the work area with a clean canvas to catch any falling insects, and a large can of Raid, and a respirator, I started into it.

I started by cutting it in half lengthwise as well as I could - it was a very irregular log - so I could quarter saw half of it, and flat saw the other half. I anxiously parted the freshly halved log, and to my great relief, I didn't see any signs of termites, or any insect. So, I started flat sawing one of the halves. . .

After the first cut of the half, I parted the cut to reveal something black wiggling in the wood. My stomach sank, and I got a sick nervousness that can only be brought on by seeing something totally foul, ugly, crawly, and disgusting in front of you. Luckily, I had that can of Raid on hand just in case, and I happened to saw into the hole at an angle, so whatever it was, it was not able to get out. I had control of the situation. I got a pair of needle nose pliers, and started slowly widening the hole, so I could get a better look at the wriggling mass. . .

To make a long story short, I pulled the thing out, dropped it on the canvas, and doused it heavily with Raid. It promptly died. There were many more, and it turned out that about half of the log was infested with what I later identified as Pigeon Horntail Wasps (Tremex Columba), and their larva and pupae. That's a type of wood wasp that infests dead or dying wood. Nothing to be afraid of. They do not harm humans, or finished wood, but it was definitely disturbing for a person with an aversion to unidentified creepy crawlies.

I can only hope that the boards I have drying in the basement now are free of the horntails, but if not, they are harmless to finished wood and humans, so it's OK.

Here are some pictures of the harvested boards. Note the incredible color variation, and almost pixelated effect of the spalting on the one board I have in my hand. Here are also some pictures of one of the hibernating wasps I extracted. Many more were either sawed in half, or left in wood and taken to the dumpster. I can't wait for this wood to dry so I can plane it, sand it, and make something with it!

All in all, I have to say, the Timberwolf blade lives up to the billing. I am very pleased with it, however I'm not quite as pleased with my saw, because it took some serious manipulation to get the blade guides properly aligned to take the 3/4" blade, which eventually resulted in manually machining the trunnion bracket with a file, even though it's supposed to be able to handle 3/4" blades out of the box. I've read forum posts by other people complaining of the same thing. I guess quality control in consumer-model band saws is just not what you might think it should be. It's definitely a tool you have to be willing to get in and make serious adjustments to, in order to get it to do what you want.

Now that I have it set up, I could really not be much happier, because I can rip my own small logs from fallen trees. It's a good feeling, both in terms of self-sufficiency, and environmentalism. Plus, I know there will be an unending supply of logs, since I live a couple blocks away from a large park, and terrible storms blow through St. Louis every summer, like the derecho that tore through here last summer, peeling half my roof back, and leaving most of the city w/out power for several days. It got up to 102 degrees the day after the power went out. It sucked, but I was lucky. It could've been much worse, and my insurance paid for the roof. Anyway, Tower Grove Park was in terrible shape. There were fallen trees everywhere. It took them weeks to get it cleaned up.

Andrew Bird

For anyone who hasn't seen Andrew Bird in concert, but is interested in new and exciting music, it's a must-see. Seriously, it's one of the most interesting and exciting concerts I've ever been to. My friend Rich and I got to see him play with Martin Dosh at the Pageant on my brother's recommendation. I had never seen or heard of either of them before...

The opening act was kind of like Mazzy Star, but with a voice like a cross between Bjork and Nico. It sounded good, don't get me wrong, but we didn't come to the show to get a good night's sleep. So as you can imagine, Rich and I were getting ready to curse my brother's name.

The stage went dark, and 15 minutes later a single light shined down on Martin Dosh, who, in his short sleeved button down shirt with a tie, looking rather like your local IT guy, slowly, over the next 5-10 minutes built up a series of loops, using different instrument sounds, until he sounded like a small ensemble himself. Then, out came Andrew and the bassist (Jeremy Ylvisaker), and he played a couple notes on his violin, then took his shoes off, and started building up his own loops using pedals on the floor. They kept building layer on layer, until finally, after several minutes, Andrew stepped on something that started two enormous horns spinning in the back of the stage. As they were spinning, flashing rhythmically in the lights, it was positively hypnotic, but exciting too, and growing cacophonous, until finally they stopped everything, and fell to silence... then started right into playing Imitosis.

You can find videos of them on Youtube, but they're completely inadequate representations of the show. In person, you can actually see, very clearly, how Andrew was using his pedals to create a new loop, and then release it to repeat, and then make another, and another. His whistling is so loud and clear, exactly like the whistling on spaghetti westerns like the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and he switches from guitar to violin constantly (just pushes the guitar around his back, out of his way, and picks up the violin). He also had a small glockenspiel mounted next to his mic stand that he would play along with his whistling sometimes, in perfect pitch. Really, he'd strike a key on the glockenspiel, and whistle the same note at the same time in perfect pitch. It was truly remarkable. This is an extremely talented musician.

We had a perfect vantage point for watching Martin as well, as he used his keyboards to create loops of his own, with his drums, cymbals, and other percussion instruments, as well as the keyboards themselves, to a lesser extent.

After the concert, I went over to the media stand to buy a CD. I asked the guy working the stand "which CD has that solo Andrew did right after the break?" "I don't know, you'll have to ask him yourself." At that moment, Andrew came out from behind the stage. "Andrew, which CD has that solo you did right after the break?" "Oh... Who?" ("Who" is apparently the name of the tune...) "That's on this one: Fingerlings." "Excellent. Thanks! Andrew, it was an absolute pleasure. Great show." "Thanks!"

That obviously made my night.

Thank you, Sean, for telling me to go to that concert. I know it's killing you to read this. Sorry you couldn't be there too!

Andrew has a website here: http://www.andrewbird.net, and a MySpace profile here: http://www.myspace.com/andrewbird

His latest album, Armchair Apocrypha, is so infectious, I am actually a little surprised by how much it's taken over my listening lately. I highly recommend it.

Planing Board by Hand

A couple posts ago I wrote about how I am saving space in my basement workshop by using hand planes in place of a jointer to flatten boards. I also said it will take a little extra manual labor. I'd like to revise that initial assessment. It takes a LOT of manual labor.

Over the past few nights, I've put in about 3 hours flattening a 43" x 9" x 1" piece of canary wood. I'm using my 4 1/2 smoothing plane. Granted, it would probably go faster with a jack plane, and this is the first time I've ever tried to do this, so I'm very much in the early stages of refining my technique, but still. I'd say I have at least that much more to go.

To create a reference line, I jointed one side of the board, then placed my 48" level on the wide face of the board right above the newly jointed side, and used my Incra T-rule to slide on the level, scribing a straight line along the jointed edge. To make the scribed line more visible, I placed a flat rule along the scribed line, and colored in the short space (the part to be removed) with a black wax pencil (a glass marking pencil).

I've been slowly working my way down through the black line using diagonal strokes with the plane. Every so often, I'll cover the face of the board with loose chalk, and scrape it off with a straight edge to reveal the bumps and valleys. That keeps me on track for now until I get close enough to the goal to get out the true bar, and really be critical of the flatness.

Good Eating in Sunset Hills, MO

Well, I must admit, I've found two shining oases in the desperately bland suburban landscape I've been cast out to. Growler's Pub, and O'Leary's are both within a mile or two of my office, and they both have some unique culinary delights that should not be missed.

O'Leary's is the first place I learned about. On the outside, it's a completely uninspired strip mall occupant on Lindbergh Blvd, about 1000 yards south of the Comp USA that is shutting down. On the inside, it's a nicely decorated Irish-themed sports bar with good lighting. They have the best hamburgers in town! The beef is fresh and juicy, and the buns are thick, soft, chewy, and delicious. My favorite burger is the fried jalapeño burger. Glory be, it's absolutely brilliant! The fries are very good too, and are served with a tasty dip, like ranch dressing mixed with a hint of ketchup. I guess it's kind of an Americanized version of Mary Rose. It works. This is my kind of soul food.

Now on to Growlers... This place is one of the quirkiest little buildings you'll find. I think it's like a Tudor-style cottage, with multiple gabled roofs, dark exterior wood trim. And it's sitting on the side of a 4 lane highway. Inside, they've done some truly whimsical decorating, with what appears to be authentic old Victorian wood trim on the windows, probably salvaged from an old St. Louis mansion. It is not really installed correctly, and it's much too big for the windows it surrounds, but I can't tell if that was intended or not.

Anyway, it's interesting to look at, but the important thing is that they have a sandwich called the Banana Cured Pork Sandwich. It's a succulent, juicy pulled pork sandwich topped with swiss cheese, and this stuff called banana ketchup. I had never heard of the stuff, but there is actually a Wikipedia article for it. To me it tastes kind of like a strongly flavored, thick apple butter. The bun is just outstanding, and the much better than average sliced pickles and unlimited fries served with it combine to make this a memorable sandwich.

Red Flame Salsa

This may sound weird, but it's really really good, and you need to try it... Next time you're eating a tomato-based salsa with chips, mix in some Red Flame Raisins! I don't know what made me think of it, but I was eating some Tostitos Gold with Pace chunky salsa the other day, and I wondered what it would taste like if I threw in some raisins. I was hesitant to try, because it doesn't seem like a good combination at first, but I am so glad I did!

I mixed in a hefty portion of Sun-Maid Mixed Jumbo Raisins (a mix of Thompson, California Golden, and Red Flame raisins). At first I couldn't tell if I liked it or not, but slowly I realized that if you narrow it down to just the Red Flame raisins, it sings! Use lots of raisins, not just a few. It's difficult to overpower the intensity of the salsa with the mild sweetness of the Red Flames, and the chewy texture the raisins add to the salsa is really exciting.

Enjoy!

Getting Started in Woodworking

I've decided to make my own wood products because the ones that I like on the market are waaaaay too expensive for me. I want new kitchen cabinets, radiator covers, screen doors, bathroom cabinets and vanities, book cases, cabinets for the basement, teak planters, a nice desk, a couple of beds, some benches, etc. Of course, building this all myself will cost money in tools and wood.

Developing a collection of tools to make all this happen requires no small investment in both time and floor space. Here I'll list some of the modern power tools you're expected to own, and then how I cut costs and floor space by using alternatives.

For starters, in order to make straight, square boards with parallel faces, which is absolutely essential, you need a jointer and a thickness planer. With the jointer you can get a flat face and side. The planer can then create a parallel and flat other side.

The jointer is part of the triumvirate of modern shop tools. Table saw, jointer, and router. Good jointers for under $1000 are only 6" jointers, which means you can only flatten boards that are 6" wide or less. They say you should buy the biggest jointer you can afford. Instead of buying a jointer, you can save space by investing in a good set of hand planes. This approach requires more manual labor, and time. The standard three are a smoothing plane, for smoothing surfaces and jointing or flattening small boards, a jack plane for flattening and jointing medium to large panels, and a jointer plane for jointing and flattening large or long surfaces.

You should NOT go cheap with hand planes. The cheapest you can go is antique Stanley Bedrock or Bailey planes (preferably Bedrock) found on eBay, Craigslist, or a yard sale or flea market. Expect to pay upwards of $100 for ones in good condition. You can be guaranteed quality steel by buying new planes. Lie-Nielsen and Veritas are your only choice for new ones, IMHO.

I'm going with the Veritas bevel-up jointer plane, and the Lie-Nielsen 4 1/2 smoother and low angle jack plane. Altogether that's more expensive than a decent 6" jointer, but you can joint and flatten boards much wider than 6", and you save floor space. ...and you have some really, really nice hand tools that, if properly cared for, will last you the rest of your life (and then some, which is why it's perfectly OK to buy high quality used ones off of eBay).

You also need a good table saw, and by good I mean one that you can count on for accurate, reliable cuts, and a table that is sufficiently flat and designed to handle after-market jigs and fences, and a zero-clearance throat plate. I bought an el-cheapo Ryobi $100 table saw last year, and immediately realized why it was the cheapest table saw in Home Depot: The blade is difficult to keep perpendicular to the table, and it's designed in such a way as to not take a zero-clearance throat plate, and the table is too cheap to work with after-market fences. It's crap! It did get me through the projects I bought it for though, and I only had $100 to spend at the time, and it fit in my car's trunk, so...

To save both space and money, you can sub in a modern guide system for a table saw. The Festool Rail Guide system is regarded as the best on the market. It comes with a high-quality, highly adjustable circular saw and lots of accessories, for about $500-$700, depending on how much you trick it out. Probably a worthwhile investment. I already have a good circular saw, so I went with the less expensive, but not as integrated, Eurekazone EZ Smart Guide system. It was $300 with the square attachment and shipping. It is not as good a system as the Festool, but hopefully it will suffice.

You'll also need a drill press. To cut both costs and floor space, you can limp along with a portable drill guide system, which turns your drill into a drill press. I've not tried one yet, but I've been told they are adequate for small projects, but after a while, you'll get sick of it.

You will also need a router, and there's really no way around that, but luckily routers do not take up floor space... just the router table. Routers are used to create decorative edging, dadoes, flushing up an edge with a template, rabbets, mortises, etc. You will use one in practically every project. There's two basic kinds of routers: fixed base and plunge. I won't tell you which one is the better buy. Just Google "fixed base vs. plunge router". There's plenty of debate on that topic.

Oh, by the way... You're also going to need a router table. And router bits, which aren't cheap.

And a band saw, to resaw your own lumber, cut book-matched panels, tenons, curves, and do a bunch of other nifty things. I think the band saw is a must-buy. There's really no simple way to do the things it can do with less expensive tools. A good way to save money on wood is to break down fallen trees from after a storm. If you're going that route, you'll want a riser block for the band saw, which adds an extra few inches (6 in the case of my band saw) so you can saw through 12" diameter logs.

You will need the thickness planer. I can't think of a way of getting a parallel face by hand without one. How did they do it in the olden days? Anyway, a bench planer is actually a relatively cheap piece of equipment (relatively), and will probably save you a lot of time you're going to want back after hand planing and jointing all your boards.

Now it's time to start organizing your work space. You're going to need to build a workbench. Follow the instruction Franz Klausz laid out in this article to build a classic cabinetmaker's bench. But first, Martin, you will need to make room in the basement to work. Raise the basement ceiling by tearing out the drywall ceiling, and lifting all the utility pipes up into the joists. Then reclaim some valuable floorspace by replacing the water heater and boiler with compact high-efficiency models. Or maybe it would be better in the long run to just build a two car garage, and make it the workshop...

Provincial Landscape

This article about a booming St. Louis suburb speaks for itself, but the photo by Karen Stockman is priceless. I might have to purchase a print and have it framed. Enjoy!

Lamb Stew w/Dumplings

Well, I've recycled my venison stew recipe, and made some modifications for using fresh lamb, and I think it was another success. This time, I was using fresh lamb cut into cubes (labeled and sold as stew meat at the supermarket... not sure what cut it came from), and I also did not have any fresh rosemary, so I used the dried stuff, and I didn't have any milk, so I mixed up some dry milk, and I didn't have any celery, so I just put in a couple more carrots, and didn't have any vegetable stock, so I just used water, and I now wish I had used the fresh cauliflower I have, but forgot about it, because it would've really given the stew some serious vegetable presence, but the real winner I discovered with this stew was the use of... Turmeric!

Yes, I added about a tablespoon or two of Turmeric, and it really brought the stew to life with a rich yellow color, and, combined with the coriander, a very slight reference to curry, which of course goes hand in hand with lamb. The use of dried rosemary actually helped the recipe, I think because it came through stronger than before, and it really did nothing but improve the bouquet.

To start this stew, I browned the meat in the oil and butter, then removed the meat to a bowl, and continued with the venison recipe, making an onion roux. Then deglazed w/water, added the meat and the rest of the veggies, added the spices, brought to a boil, and then reduced to a simmer for about an hour or so. Then made the dumplings, cooked them 10 minutes uncovered, 10 covered, then removed the stew from the heat to let cool for about 30 minutes, then served.

Deeeelishus!

Venison Stew with Dumplings

I got pretty lucky with this one, because I didn't use a recipe. Turns out stew is pretty easy when you have the right ingredients...

1 large jar of pressure cooked venison (thanks Katie & Tim!)
6 celery stalks
4 carrots
3 potatoes (Idaho Russets are probably best for stew... that's what I used)
2 onions (I used Vidalias)
3 bay leaves (I used fresh, but not sure if this matters)
1.5 tbsp unsalted butter
1.5 tbsp oil (I used canola)
about 1.5 cups of regular flour
about 2 cups of Bisquick (regular or Heart Smart)
about 1/2 cup of milk (your preference of fat content)
about 2 cups of stock (I used vegetable stock)
some kosher salt
some pepper
some fresh rosemary
some mustard seed
some coriander

Clean and chop the vegetables. I like them all in small chunks except for the potatoes, which should be large chunks. Make a light roux with the flour, butter, oil, and onions (how to make roux shown here and here). Deglaze with the stock, and put in the rest of the vegetables. Let that cook down for a little while, then add the meat, with its juices, about 4 quarts of water, and the salt, herbs, and spices.

Let that whole thing simmer uncovered for about 1-2 hours. If you feel like you added too much water, you may need to let it cook off longer. I didn't actually measure the water, but I think it was about 4 quarts. You don't want the stew to become too thick while it's cooking because believe-you-me, after spending a night in the refrigerator, it will be twice as thick as it was when you put it in there.

About 25 minutes before the stew is done stewing, mix up your milk and Bisquick to make a thick dough (if it's too thin, it won't hold up well in the stew) per the directions on the box for "dumplings", break off a random piece about 2 inches in diameter (don't roll it up too much, the irregularity gives it more visual appeal), and drop it in the stew. Continue dropping slightly spherical chunks of dough into the stew until the top is covered. My pot takes about 8 dumplings to cover. You'll notice the dough expands fairly quickly to about three times its size in the stew. Let that cook for 10 minutes uncovered, and 10 minutes covered.

Turn off the heat, and let the stew cool for awhile. You may want to pull the dumplings off the top with a slotted spoon and set them aside so the stew can thicken faster (steam escapes faster that way).

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the most important leaders in our country's history. He was also one of our most eloquent and inspirational orators. If you have not seen his speeches before, watch his "I Have a Dream" speech: http://www.mlkonline.net. It is truly amazing. They say he started off with a scripted speech, but about halfway through, started improvising.

What boggles my mind today, on Martin Luther King's birthday, a national holidy, is the lack of television content regarding Dr. King. I thought BET might have something going on today, but actually no, they don't have one solitary program dedicated to the man on his birthday! Just the regular Monday lineup! So, then I thought well if BET doen't have anything, surely CoLours would... wrong again! Zilch. Nada. The Biography Channel? Nope, but there's two hours dedicated to Burt Reynolds at 9am and 3pm. The Documentary Channel? No, no, no.

Am I really such a couch potato that even the networks think that since everyone will be out of their houses honoring the late civil rights leader at local events, there's no point in even putting on any programs? I kind of doubt it.

I did find a couple assassination documentaries on The History Channel, as well as a documentary that talks about his life and times. Also, PBS is going to run a major film tonight called "Citizen King," so I'm looking forward to that.

It is completely absurd that of the 200 channels I get, there will only be two programs today that I could find that will talk about Dr. King's life and worldview. The two assassination documentaries only get partial credit, although they are interesting. BET is the biggest dissappointment. I am completely floored that a channel dedicated to African-American audiences will not make room for one solitary hour in its schedule to remember one of Black America's brightest, most ardent, and beloved leaders, on a national holiday dedicated to the man.

Well, BET has been criticized by many highly regarded African-American institutions, so I guess it shouldn't suprise me that much... but it just seems wrong. Same goes for CoLours.

Traditional Irish

There's a new Irish restaurant here in St. Louis called The Dubliner. Before my office was moved out to soul-crushing suburbs this month, we ate lunch there a few times. I quickly became a huge fan of the boiled bacon with parsley sauce, and I think I'm finally approaching a quality reproduction at home. To begin with, it's not actually boiled bacon, like you're thinking. This was actually pulled pork loin, I'm pretty sure.

So I bought a pork tenderloin today, and went home and made a vegetable stock. I had to get rid of some old veggies anyway. I used baby portabella mushrooms, zuchinni, boston lettuce, a bunch of parsley, some celery, about 4 carrots, and three bay leaves. Covered it all with water, and then simmered it for about an hour. Then I strained, and threw away the vegetables.

Next, I put the tenderloin in with the stock and about a tablespoon of kosher salt, and started that on a boil for 30 minutes, covered.

I wanted some potatoes to go with this, so I peeled four russetts, and started cooking them like I talked about a couple posts ago.

With about 5 minutes left on the tenderloin, I got out my sauce pan, and started making a roux by melting about 1.5 tablespoons of unsalted butter in a tablespoon of canola oil. I brought that up to medium high heat, and started adding flour until it looked pretty thick (but not too thick). I'm still learning the whole roux thing. It takes practice. Anyway, here's where the magic happened... when the roux was ready for liquid, I took about three ladles full of the broth that the loin had cooked in, and put it in with the roux, stirring furiously to break up the ensuing lumps, and then added about three or four cups of milk, continuing to stir and stir to get those damn lumps out.

Once I had the sauce pretty well blended, I brought the heat up to bring it to a boil. Meanwhile, I washed off a bunch of fresh parsley and chopped it. Use a lot of fresh parsley here. After chopping it, it filled both of my cupped hands. About that time the milk came to a boil. I backed the heat off, and put the parsley in. Then I stirred and stirred and stirred until the sauce evaporated enough that I could turn off the heat to let it thicken by standing.

I pulled the pork by combing it with two dinner forks (one to hold it, one to comb it). Everything turned out really well, but I think the tenderloin would've been more flavorful if I had let it sit overnight in that stock before cooking it. I'll try that next time. Or, maybe an herb marinade with a dash of salt overnight would be better. It seems to be a dry meat, and needs some kind of flavor infusion beyond just boiling it in stock.

Venison Tamales

Making tamales is fun, and the results are delicious. I found an instant masa flour in Schnucks called Maseca Instant Corn Masa Mix, and next to it a bag of corn husks called Palenque Corn Husks, so I figured I'd give it a try.

After attempting to make tamales for the first time a few days ago, I have learned a few things. There are some tricks to rolling tamales. The dough, or masa, can be difficult to work with, and folding up tamales in corn husks, and having them stay that way, a bit of a challenge. I don't claim to know much, but I'll share what I have learned.

First thing I've learned is that the tamale filling doesn't have to be anything remotely Mexican. Sure, if you want to make traditional tamales, you should probobly stick to the recipes you find online, but really a tamale can be stuffed with anything meaty, or maybe even some kind of vegetarian filling using tofu, and it will be good. The key thing to think about is if the flavor of the filling will go well with the strong corn flavor of the masa.

The second thing I learned is that folding the corn husks like the Maseca package suggests is not as tractable as tying the ends with strips of corn husk. This is a trick I picked up from a Mexican co-worker. It solves the problem of the husks wanting to lay flat after you're finished packaging the tamale.

Next, I figured out that it's much easier to pick out a good, smooth corn husk, get it nice and damp (not dripping), and use it to press the masa into the candidate corn husk that you're rolling in. That's because the masa will not stick to it. Pressing the masa with your hands is too messy. You could probobly use many things for this, but that's what I came to.

Also, I've found that you can pick out another nice, smooth corn husk, and use it to roll every tamale, then transfer the perfectly rolled tamale to a lesser husk for packaging. So, you have your husk you use for pressing, and the one you use for rolling, and the one you'll use to actually roll the tamale up in.

So, the process goes like this... You have your bowl of meat mixture, and a bowl of masa, and a stack of cleaned, dampened corn husks, and your two really nice big, smooth, damp corn husks, which I'll call your working husks. You put a portion of masa in the one of the working husks, then press it down flat with the other working husk, then put the meat in there, and roll the tamale up like a cigarette. The working husk acts just like a manual cigarette roller, if you've ever used one. Hard to explain in writing. Anyway, you then transfer the tamale to a husk for packaging, roll it up, and tie the ends with nice, sturdy, thin strips of corn husk, and put it in the steamer, then repeat until the steamer is full, or you run out of some resource.

Now, for the recipe...

3 cloves of garlic
1/2 large Vadalia onion
2 stalks of celery
1 tsp of olive oil
1 tsp of unsalted butter
1 jar of pressure cooked venison
2 cups water
1 tsp of kosher salt
1 handful of fresh oregano
3 fresh bay leaves

I chopped three cloves of garlic, half of a large vadalia onion, and two stalks of celery, then lightly sauteed (it was an aggressive sweat, really) that in a medium sized pot with a teaspoon each of olive oil and unsalted butter. Then I put in a jar of canned venison which was pressure cooked in its own juices (thanks Katie and Tim!). Added water until it was barely covered, threw in some kosher salt, and brought to a boil, then reduced to a simmer until it was nearly cooked down. Then added three fresh bay leaves and a handful of chopped fresh oregano, and let that simmer until there was very little juice left. Then removed it from the heat, removed the bay leaves, and strained it to remove any fluid that the meat couldn't hold. I wanted it moist, but not messy.

Now, get to rollin' those tamales! It takes a few to get into the rhythm. I use a bamboo steamer, so once it's filled, I've rolled all I can. Steam them for an hour, refrigerate (or eat) the finished product, and refill those steamers until all the masa is gone.

Good and yummy for lunch, dinner, or snack. My tamales were a bit dry the first time I made them, so I used the parsley sauce I mentioned in my last blog, and that worked pretty well (they were made with ground beef and green serrano peppers). I did make the masa with less broth (chicken) than the recipe called for, because I thought the dough was not supposed to be so soft, but this time I used the whole two cups it calls for, so they're nice and moist. Anyway, a tamale with sauce is better than one without. I think for the venison tamales, a robust wine sauce would be nice, but I don't have any wine, so I'll have to come up with something. OK, timer just went off, time to eat!

Update: These are seriously good tamales. Even without a sauce.

Potatoes

Mmm... potatoes! I've come up with a new way of preparing these little critters that is deeeelishus. Start by peeling about seven potatoes. Half them, and then quarter the halves. Boil until well done, then drain. In a large skillet, heat 1 tbsp of oil and 1 tbsp of butter (or so). Throw in the potatoes, and start frying. Toss them in the pan every few minutes until they are flaky golden brown. This will take a long time - maybe 20 minutes - because they will not start turning golden until most of the water is evaporated.

If the potatoes were not boiled long enough, they just end up like home fries, but slightly softer, creamier, on the inside. However, if you get it right, they get rounded like river stones while you toss them because they're so soft from boiling, and the golden skins are very flaky and delicate because they are broken and recreated by the tossing action.

I serve them with a parsley sauce that I have not mastered yet. I'm open to suggestions. The best I've done so far was to make a light roux with unsalted butter and flour, then add milk and let thicken, then remove from heat and stir in kosher salt and parsley. I can't remember how I did it the first time, but it was bland both times. I think some good vegetable stock is needed...

Sure would be great if I had a digital camera, I could photograph the golden flakey goodness for y'all. Maybe later this year I'll get one... the good ones have to come down in price some time!

Coach Rod is Staying!

YES!!! Thank you, Rich Rodriguez. You've truly proven that this old world still has some light left in it. You've made the right decision. I could not be more proud that you are our head coach. The Mountaineers will continue to build and impress, and we will lead this conference to a national championship.

Believe it or not, the news only gets better! Greg Schiano also turned down Miami to stay at Rutgers, and Jim Leavitt says he's happy at South Florida. Earlier this year, Bobby Petrino decided to stay at Louisville after the Oakland Raiders made him an offer. I feel like we all got a huge early Christmas present this year! We have some really great coaches comfortably entrenched now. Rodriguez, Petrino, Schiano, Leavitt. Let's face it: we are one lucky conference right now.

What a great time for the Big East. We have the most desired coaches in college football, and they most desire to be right where they are. Thank you to all.

Climatologist: Alps warmest in 1,300 years

That's right, everyone. Better enjoy what little snow we have, because it's getting more and more difficult for ski resorts to produce a viable hill. We're actually doing pretty well in the rockies, but the Alps are not. So far this year, the FIS has had to cancel several races in Europe due to a lack of snow. Val Gardena is getting a weak green for next weekend, presuming they can keep the hill covered.

FIS men's tour director, Guenter Hujara talked about how it sneaks up on you. "... all of a sudden the World Cup starts and you need the white stuff. And to produce it, you need the cold temperature and the water."

How much human migration will take place over the next 20 years? Will people be driven by the heat to move towards the poles? Will old resorts have to close down, and new ones emerge in once-frozen regions?

Here is a striking example of just how much our planet has warmed up over the past 60 years. It's a pair of pictures of Muir glacier, in Alaska. One was taken in 1941, and the other in 2004.

A PB&J for the Holidays

I've been perfecting a Christmas sandwich recipe. It's basically a fancy-schmancy PB&J. Try it, change it, enjoy it, and let me know what you think...

Requires:
Couple slices of French bread
Some peanut butter
Some raisins
Orange marmalade
Ground nutmeg
Ground cinnamon
Ground coriander
Honey
Butter or margarine

Slice some French bread, and very lightly toast it. On one side, apply peanut butter, and sprinkle on some cinnamon, nutmeg, and coriander. Pour on a minor amount of honey. Toast in toaster oven until spices are activated, but before the honey melts too much. You may want to put some aluminum foil down to prevent honey from dripping into the oven. Remove from toaster, and then place the raisins on top. On the other side of bread, put on a very light layer of butter or margarine, and a decent portion of orange marmalade. Put it all together, and enjoy!

I used coriander because to me it has a kind of bright, lemon-like smell that adds to the spiced citrus theme. Some lemon zest would be a good substitute, maybe. A very delicate treatment with ground cloves and/or ginger would probobly add to the Christmas-iness of it. Also some toasted almonds would be a welcome addition, if you have them. I used a dark honey from Gibbons Bee Farm here in Missouri. I think the rich flavor works better than a light honey would. I also use light margarine instead of butter, but I'm not really convinced that that part of the recipe is even necessary. You could probobly omit it altogether. I've been using the jumbo raisin mix from Sunmaid. I'm thinking I like the flavor variations in the sandwich, but if you only have the regular dark kind of raisins, I'm sure it would still be pretty good.

This sandwich is great w/a glass of milk!

Get Your Grubby Hands Off My Coach!

Seriously. The Big East is making its move to the big time. We have so much potential right now. WVU, Louisville, and Rutgers have all shown a lot of talent and heart this year, and the nation has noticed. When we lost Miami, BC, and Virginia Tech, everyone thought the Big East would quietly slink into obscurity, lose its BCS bid, and eventually dissolve.

Welly welly welly welly well! South Florida is now showing promise, and with a BCS bid stably assured to our conference for the forseeable future, I think they'll start drawing some of that amazing Floridian football talent. Pittsburgh is just having a couple down years. Wannstedt will have that program in the top 25 consistently soon. Hell, even Syracuse may creep back out of the basement some day, back to their former glory as a respectable football program, which produced such greats as Art Monk, Donovan McNabb, and Larry Csonka.

So, of course, everyone wants to strip the Big East of its most prized assets: its coaches. I am literally getting sick of reading articles saying how Rich Rodriguez, Bobby Petrino, and Greg Schiano are all candidates somewhere else. And if Rutgers fails to step up and pay Schiano to stay in New Jersey, I may feel compelled to take matters into my own hands... not sure how I'd do that, but I'd do something... and it probobly wouldn't be pretty. Louisville's already given Petrino a pretty sweet deal, and he's commited to them, according to this post. WVU has also stepped up and given Richie Rod what he asked for. Hopefully they'll keep heaping it on. Investing in these coaches now will pay off big for all these programs in the future, even if the coaches do choose to leave. As long as we can keep them here long enough to build up the conference's reputation as a whole, we'll all benefit from it.

Consider the fact that when the Big East was abandoned by Miami, VT, and BC, we still had WVU and Pitt, but even though those were both good programs, our BCS bid was under serious scrutiny. Without it, a top coach would obviously have doubts about moving to, or staying in, the dying conference. Thankfully, we've come through with some clutch wins, and shown the world that we're not a dying conference, but one with incredible potential for long term growth and improvement. Who knows, maybe we'll even be able to get Penn State to take notice. If we can keep these great coaches here long enough to build the conference up into a powerhouse conference, like the SEC and the Pac-10, we would be able to more easily afford losing them, because other great coaches will be more attracted to the conference.

Miami, Alabama, Florida State, and UNC, I'm talking to you when I say...

Get your stinking hands off my coaches, you damned dirty apes!

Vive St. Louis!

I really do love living in St. Louis. I live in St. Louis City. Shaw, to be precise. St. Louis's neighborhoods are distinct entities with well-defined borders, which is pretty cool. However, I'm not from St. Louis, I was raised in rural West Virginia. Yes, rural West Virginia. I say this because I've found that most of the people I know who live in St. Louis proper are also not from St. Louis, or even the St. Louis area. Like me, they were raised in rural America.

Over the past seven years I've lived here, I've learned that there's some sort of stigma felt by native "St. Louisans" against living in the actual city. It totally caught me by suprise when I first moved here, because I had no idea that when you live in the city, you're not actually supposed to live in the city. Nobody told me.

My neighbors are from places like northern Mississippi, southwest Missouri, northern Pennsylvania, northern Utah, etc. Rural places. I guess nobody told them either. It's an interesting phenomena. As it turns out, the most fervent proponents of City Living in St. Louis that I know of were raised in rural environments (not suburbs). It seems to me that most "St. Louisans" take pride in saying they're from St. Louis, but only about 1% of the people I work with actually live in the city. About 1 in 100. Most people live about 30 minutes from Downtown, or more. Why would you want to live so far from where you work?

The City of St. Louis is a great place to live. It has some of the most unique and beautiful buildings - both commercial and residential - in all of America. The natives generally don't appreciate that. These houses are relatively inexpensive, to boot. Why someone would want to live out in the 'burbs, in a house with hollow doors, vinyl siding, and that cheap 1" wide painted wood trim, when they could be living in a solid brick house with solid core doors, stained glass, hardwood floors, and real oak and pine wood trim, for the same price or less, and be much closer to work, is totally beyond me.

Living in St. Louis has made me firmly believe that supporting the city, any city, is a great way to preserve the environment. Urban sprawl is a sickening waste of green space. Sure, everyone wants to live in their own private Idaho. They stretch infrastructure out into the prairie, or the [insert sensitive ecosystem here], and then complain about the cost of gas, and traffic, and taxes. Man, get a clue. If more people had the notion to make America's urban areas strong, safe, and vibrant places to live, imagine the money - and scenery - we could save.

I'm not saying every city should be like Tokyo. There's definately a point where you can have overcrowding. However, the endless fields of McMansions sprouting up across the plains and valleys is just atrocious.

This coming from a person who loves and respects the American landscape too much to block the view with cheap vinyl siding, and stacks of gables.

Another thing about urban sprawl that irritates the shit out of me is how people who live in suburbs like to consider themselves simple country folk. Ok, just because you own a pickup truck, and you actually do live in the country, does not make you simple country folk. Dude, we all know that truck has never seen more than an inch of mud, and the number of times you actually used it to haul something definately does not justify the cost of owning it. I know you want to be a simple, manly man, in an ever-increasingly complex world, but get real. Owning a pickup truck doesn't make you a man. Independent thought, integrity, and wisdom are what make you a man.

Sorry this turned into a rant about suburbanism, but it did, and I'm not taking it back.